Are Cogent being used for overflow or is this some other issue?

For the last few days, for whatever reason, every other instance I join is a Cogent instance instead of the usual Software layer pop at the Tokyo exchange. Unfortunately, the Cogent route is via Hong Kong and Singapore instead of direct. This increases the latency of the connection from ~35ms to ~160ms.

These ate the last two instances I've joined:
Cogent:


Direct:

My chat with my ISP sums up to all my issues being from Cogent

Apparently Cogent was just the cheapest contract, but my ISP guy outright said basically "they regret making the contract, because too many people are having issues with them"

Normally, when the route changes like this it's because the instance you're attempting to connect to is too busy to accept the connection on the cluster you've connected to and you're routed to some other cluster that has the capacity available. This usually happens at the beginning of a league and GGG normally use Google as the overflow host.

I don't know what this is, hence the question.

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Kellog wrote:

Normally, when the route changes like this it's because the instance you're attempting to connect to is too busy to accept the connection on the cluster you've connected to and you're routed to some other cluster that has the capacity available. This usually happens at the beginning of a league and GGG normally use Google as the overflow host.

GGG doesn't own your ISP though, and the route changes right after 87.226.133.15 (your end hop before hongkong (cogent) or tokyo (direct)

This is something you have to ask your ISP about

The point is, when did GGG start using Cogent hosting at the TokyoIX. I've not seen this route before and I've been playing using the Tokyo pop for a long time.
The fact that Cogent hosting is being used is the problem.

From what I can see, looking at BGP tools, the Cogent ASN peers directly with NTT, which is why the route is via Hong Kong and not direct. Moreover, this is new and intermittent.

I spoke with the engineers at my ISP and they confirm that nothing has changed peering wise.